#PostOfficeScandal: Vennells hands back CBE after petition takes a million signatures
Paula Vennells: was she shamed into returning her CBE? Why was she given it in the first place?
The former chief executive of Post Office Limited, Paula Vennells, has handed back her CBE after a petition calling for her to do so was signed by more than a million people.
It is an entirely symbolic gesture. Neither she nor any other Post Office employees – or staff at Fujitsu, the company that provided the faulty and insecure Horizon software that was used to wrongly incriminate hundreds of sub-postmasters – are facing any charges of wrongdoing related to what happened.
And her statement suggests that she knows this.
She has said: “I continue to support and focus on co-operating with the inquiry and expect to be giving evidence in the coming months.
“I have so far maintained my silence as I considered it inappropriate to comment publicly while the inquiry remains ongoing and before I have provided my oral evidence. I am, however, aware of the calls from sub-postmasters and others to return my CBE.
“I have listened and I confirm that I return my CBE with immediate effect.
“I am truly sorry for the devastation caused to the sub-postmasters and their families, whose lives were torn apart by being wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted as a result of the Horizon system.
“I now intend to continue to focus on assisting the inquiry and will not make any further public comment until it has concluded.”
Vennells was a strong supporter of Horizon while sub-postmasters were being prosecuted and during their court case to prove that it was at fault and not them. She avoided giving evidence at that court case.
It seems likely to This Writer that she has spent the last few years preparing ways to justify her inexcusable behaviour when she does appear before the public inquiry that is belatedly being held into the circumstances of the scandal.
But – as stated explicitly in the TV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office – as chief executive, the buck stopped with her. It was her responsibility to know everything about Horizon and how it was being used to criminalise sub-postmasters. She should not be able to evade her responsibility for what happened to them.
When she does appear before the inquiry, This Writer hopes she will be forced to explain one significant aspect of the scandal.
We know that the Horizon software wrongly made it seem that sub-postmasters were stealing tens of thousands of pounds from their Post Office branches – money that never actually existed.
We have heard that, because the software was insecure, staff at Fujitsu were able to enter any sub-postmaster’s account and change the figures to falsely make it seem they had stolen money. This, it seems, is what made it possible to commit the most widespread offence to justice in UK history.
It seems clear to me that these were deliberate, pre-meditated acts.
The question I want answered is simple: why did the Post Office and Fujitsu do it?
What was it all for?
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Indeed why did Fujitsu and the Post Office commit fraud over a number of years? And where is the money criminal Post Office forced Sub Post mistresses and Post Masters to hand over because these amounts were supposedly stolen from the Post Office??